Bobbin change device for weft replenishing looms



A. VVIRZ BOBBIN CHANGE DEVICE FOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Filed Oct. ll, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet l To coLLEcTo/a 77 INVENTOR AUGUST WIRZ A. WIRZ Juny is, we?

BOBBIN CHANGE DEVICE FOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed O61'l ll,

AIR PUMP 70 SUCTION DEVICE AUGUST WIRZ ATT RNEY A. WIRZ BOBBI CHANGE DEVICE FOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Filed OCT.. ll, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR L Cl United States Patent 3,331,401 BOBBIN CHANGE DEVICE FR WEFT REPLENESHING LOOMS August Wirz, Arhon, Thurgau, Switzerland, assigner to Adolph Saurer Ltd., Arbon, Switzerland, a corporation of Switzerland Filed Oct. 11, 1966, Ser. No. 585,974 Claims priority, application Switzerland, Sept. 20, 1963, 11,634/63 2 Claims. (Cl. 139-257) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE Bobbin transfer mechanism for weft replenishing function in a weft replenishing loom comprising suction manifold means common to all bobbin transfer members and a weft bunch stripper which responds to the downward displacement of the ltransfer members for automatic operation.

This invention is a continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 395,700, tiled Sept. l1, 1964, now abandoned, and relates to looms, and more particularly to automatic `bobbin change mechanisms for weft replenishing looms, and weft bunch removing devices associated with said bobbin change mechanism.

Weft replenishing looms are known which include a stationary bobbin magazine having a number of compartments, each containing bobbins of a specific group disposed adjacent to one another, and a corresponding number of bobbin transfer members which are moved automatically from their normal position into a transfer position common to all transfer members and disposed above the shuttle to which a bobbin is to be transferred. In the course of the transfer, the weft bunch disposed at the tip of the bobbin must be stripped off, and the art is replete with disclosures of weft bunch removing devices, none of which, however, has been completely successful.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved weft bunch removing device for weft replenishing looms which is entirely satisfactory.

It is a further object of this invention -to provide an improved weft bunch removing device for weft replenishing looms which is distinguished by simplicity of construction and low production and operating costs.

Other objects and the manner in which the same are attained will become apparent as this specification proceeds.

The invention contemplates providing each bobbin transfer member of the kind designed to be displaced into a transfer position common to all such members, with a weft bunch stripping device and with a conduit, the orifice of which can be operatively connected with a suction manifold common to all bobbin transfer members, the weft bunch stripping device being set in operation on downward displacement of the bobbin transfer member.

ln the drawing accompanying this application and forming part thereof, a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated diagrammatically by way ofexample with illustrative rather than with any limitative intent.

FIG. l is a schematic representation of an assembly, according to the invention, in vertical section along line n--a in FIG. 2;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of section of the assembly shown in FIG. l, with certain parts omitted for clarity, the upper part of FIG. 2 being a plan View section along line c-c-c-c, the lower part a plan view section along line b-b-b-b in FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a showing similar to that of FIG. 1 illustrating,

, however, certain parts in different positions, and 1n a Vertical section along line d-d in FIG. 4;

3,331,461 Patented July 18, 1967 FIG. 4 is a plan view of the assembly shown in FlG. 3 with parts omitted for clarity;

FIG. 5 is a section along lines e-e in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a detail shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 on the rig-ht, drawn to a larger scale;

FIG. 7 is an end view looking at the device of FIG. 1 from the left, including additional parts;

FIG. 8 is a vertical section, on a larger scale, taken along line f-f in FIG. 3 including some parts not shown in FIG. 3 and excluding some parts shown thereon.

Before going into a detailed description of the drawing, reference is made to U.S. Patent No. 2,836,202, in the name of Wiget et al. and assigned to the present assignee, this prior patent containing a lever system for actuating the slide mechanisms which operate the bobbin transfer members. In this U.S. patent, the looms include bobbins without a weft end bunch at the tip of the bobbin. The present device utilizes the identical level system of this U.S. patent in order to actuate the pins which move in slots for the slide displacement of the bobbins in their compartments during transfer.

Referring now to the drawing wherein like elements are denoted by identical reference numerals, and especially FIGS. 1 and 2, the bobbin magazine 1 comprises two walls 2 and 3 and provided in the walls sets of radially opposed grooves 2 and 3 which form compartments A, B, C, D. Individual groups of bobbins 4 are accommodated in the compartments A, B, C, and D (FIG. 8) which are disposed adjacent to one another in the magazine 1. As seen in FIG. 5, the lower part of the wall is wedge-shaped.

A head plate 5 faces the larger peripheral wall 2 of magazine 1 and is provided with curved guide slots 6, 7, 8 and 9 (see FIGS. 2, 4, and 7), their number corresponding to the number of compartments in the magazine. As they extend downwardly, the slots converge toward the vertical center plane of plate 5. As shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 7, an oblong slide 10 has pins 11 and 12 that engage the curved slots 6, 7, 8 and 9, the upper pins 11 being attached to draw springs 13 which aim to keep the respective slides 10 in the upper terminal or rest position. Slide 10 is actuated by means of pin 11 on commencement of the bobbin change. The general arrangement of the curved slots is as shown in U.S. Patent No. 2,836,202 and the actuation of the pin 11 takes place through a pushing rod by means of a lever system which is explained in this patent and will be repeated as follows:

A guide rod 72 is connected with a pirn feeler device (not shown) provided for the shuttles. The guide rod 72 controlls a ball crank lever 73 :having arms 73a and 73b which is pivotally supported on a xed bolt 74 to assist in controlling a pushing rod 75 pivoted to the upper arm 731; of bell crank lever 73. The pushing rod 75 is also connected, by a guide rod 76, with the upper arm of a bell crank lever 77 which is pivotally supported on a fixed bolt 78 and the second arm of which is connected with a control rod 79 whose movements are governed by the control for the vertical displacements of the shuttle box (drop box).

To illustrate the specific lever action, reference is made to FIGS. 2, 4 and 7 for the movement of the pins and also to FIGS. 7 and 8 for the illustration of the shuttle F with the transfer `position of the bobbin shown in FIG. 8 at a location above the shuttle F.

First, it is to be noted that the pins 11 and 12 can be moved up Iand down in the curved slots 6, 7, 8 and 9 respectively and that the slide 10, which is mounted on pins 11 and 12, is displaced by the levers of U.S. Patent No. 2,836,202 in `order to operate the bodding transfer member 14. Each bobbin compartment in Ithe magazine has its own transfer member and the present illustration in FIGS. 2, 4 and 8 labels the four compartments A, B, C and D respectively, whereby the positions Vcompartment C and in the position IV the pin 3 I, II, III, 1V of the pushing rod 75 and the positions I, II, III, IV of the bell crank lever 77 (FIG. 7) correspond to the compartments A,B, C, D (FIG. 8). In other words, if .the pushing rod 75 and the bell crank lever 77 are placed in ythe position marked I, the pushing rod 75 will Vactuate before a bobbin change, the pin 11 of the slide 10 belonging to compartment A, in the position II the pin 11 of the slide 10 belonging to compartment B, in the position III the pin 11 of the slide 10 belonging to 11 of slide 10 belonging to compartment D.

Below each compartment A, B, YC and D, there is thus arranged the associated transfer member 14, which on the left has a pin 15 terminating in a spherical head 16, the head 16 engaging a tubular portion 17 of the slide 1t) which is correlated with this transfer member 14. The bobbin compartment of the bobbin transfer members 14 is elastically closed at its bottom side by means of leaftype springs S (FIG. 8).

One the right, the bobbin transfer member 14 extends through slide guide 1S to a rod 19 which, by means of a U-shaped portion 20, a portion 21 and pin 22, is mounted in the fixed support 23. Slide guide 18 is provided with a conduit 25 which terminates in an orifice 26. The support 23 at the top mounts a pin 24 (FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4). A two-armed lever 27, 28 is mounted for rocking displacement on bolt 24. The two-armed lever 27, V28 is connected, on the one hand, through rod 29 with the stripping slide 30 guided on the slide guide 18 and, on the other hand, through connecting piece 31, with a lever 32 mounted on portion 21. Stripping slide 30 is provided with the pivotally mounted stripping jaws 50 carrying pins 49. Springs 51 tend to pull the stripping jaws 50 together.

From an air pump 70 two conduits 35 and 36 lead to a control valve 37 from which a conduit 38 extends to the sucking device for change of thread, while conduit 39 leads to the injector'A 40. Suction pipe 41 terminates underneath the orifice 26 of conduit 25. Conduit 42 extends to a collector 71 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3. The control valve 37 is operated on commencement of the bobbin transfer, via rod 45, lever 46 and slide 47.

The device of the invention operates as follows:

While weaving is in progress, valve 37 is adjusted to permit the pump to convey air through conduit 38 as well as conduit 39. When bobbin transferrmember 14 'is displaced through pin 11 Iby means of a pushing rod in a manner known in the yart :and shown in FIG. 7, into its transfer position, the valve 37 is adjusted so thatv the air volume deriving from both forward and return strokes of the pump is conveyed to the injector 40 which is located on conduit 42 (FIG. 3); At the outset of the transfer operation, the particular bobbin 4 selected for the transfer has been inserted in the correlatedtransfer member 14, and this member 14 is disposed in the transfer position common to all the transfer members and locatedY above the shuttle to which the bobbin is to be transferred. In Vthe first part of the downward movement of the transfer member 14, pins 49 slide off the wedge-shaped bottom part of wall 3 whereupon stripping jaws 50 embrace the tip `of the bobbin (FIGS. 2 and 5). The downward displacement of transfer member 14 rocks lever 32 counterclockwise. Through connecting piece 31, this causes a Y corresponding rocking displacement of the two-armed lever 27, 28 whereby rod 29 and stripping slide 30 are Vpulled toward the right so as to remove weft bunch 4S (FIG. 3). At the same time, orice 26 of conduit 25 is caused to engageV section pipe 41, whereupon the weft bunchV 48 Vis gripped and rmly held under the inuence of suction.`

W'hen the bobbin transfer is completed, the transfer member 14 returns to the starting position which is shown in FIG. 1. Simultaneously,rthe stripping slide 30 moves f toward the left, into receiving position. In the latter'part of theupward movement of transfer'member 14, pins 49, connect with jaws 50, engage the wedge-shaped bottom part of wall 3 and,V overcoming the force of spring 51, cause jaws 50 to open.

Other aspects of the operation will be more clearly understood in the light of the structure of the present invention shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, 60 denotes the hammer provided to eject the exchange bobbins 4. The hammer is controlled by the bobbin feeler dev-ice in a manner known in the art. The hammer 66 is pivotally mounted on a fixed bolt;61. F denotes a shuttle and G an empty bobbin still in the shuttle but about to be replaced by a full replacement bobbin. At the bottom of each compartment A, B, C yand D of the magazine 1, a unit 63 comprises shaft 64 and pawl unit 65 and the shaft 64 pivotally supports a two-armed top pawl 65 which is influenced by a draw spring 62. This spring `tends to keep the pawl 65 in Va position where its longer arm extends into the path of any bobbin emerging from the respective compartment for the purpose of preventing the bottom bobbin 4 from issuing from the compartment prematurely.

FIG. 7 shows how a bobbin transfer from the position below the compartment into a transfer position common to vall transfer members loc-ated above the shuttle which is to receive the bobbin.

Suppose that a weaving operation uses ya bobbin 4 deriving from compartment D (FIG. 8) and -the control rod 79 is in its lowermost position which it assumed in the course of the preceding transfer operation, where the two arms of the bell crank lever 77 take up the position marked IV in FIG. 7. If, for example, weaving is toV proceed with a bobbin 4 of the series stored in comp-artment A, the bobbin change is initiated in such a known manner that the changer aggregate causes the respective shuttle box to move into that position where the shuttleshed is in transfer position with respect to the corresponding bobbin. At the same time, the control rod 79 is automatically displaced upwardly until Vthe bell crank lever 77 assumes the position indicated by I, I in FIG. 7, whereby the pushing rod 75, controlled by the guide r-od 76, is in its turn moved into its I position.

When the supply of thread on the working bobbin is exhausted, the feeler device initiates the exchange of bobbins by causing the guide rod 72 to displace the bell crank lever 73 clockwise. The pushing rod 75, linked to the bell crank lever 73, pushes the slide 10 correlated w-ith compartment A downward on plate 5, counteracting spring 13 on the pin 11 with the result that the bottom bobbin 4 in the'bobbin transfer member below compart- Y v by means of the hammer 611, into the shuttle F whereupon the hammer 60 returns to the initial, rest position. At the Sametime, the feeler device moves the guide rod,72'(to the right in FIG. 37)', causing the bell crank lever 73 to be displaced Vcounterclockwise so that the pushing rod 75, too, returns to its initial position (FIG. 7). Spring 'Y 13 is now free to return Vslide 10 whereby the correspondi ing bobbin transfer member is also brought back into its normal position where it stays just below the respective F compartment of the bobbin magazine until it is displaced.. i again in a subsequent bobbin change operation. Going Y back into said normal position, the bobbin transfer memt ber pushes the longer arm of the pawl 65 sidewards leaving the way free for the bottom bobbin 4 in compartment A to fall into the transfer member where said bobbin is( retained by the leaf-type springs S.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to beV limited to the exact details of construction and operationV shown and described, as modifications within the scope of the appended claims and involving no departure from Y member is moved the spirit of the invention, nor sacrifices of any of the advantages thereof, may occur to workers in the iield.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

1. In a weft replenishing loom of the type having a shuttle, a stationary bobbin magazine and said magazine enclosing a plurality of compartments which contain a series of bobbins, the separate bobbins of said series being distinguished from one another by color and by material, each series being disposed adjacent one another in said magazine, the improvement consisting `of a bobbin transfer assembly having a number of transfer members corresponding to the number of said magazine compartments, each of said bobbin transfer members being displaced downwardly and sidewardly to a transfer position above the shuttle which is the same position for all of said transfer members, a weft bunch removing device arranged on each of said bobbin transfer members, a conduit in each of said transfer members, suction means, an orifice at the end of each said conduit, a suction pipe on said suction means, means for registering and pneumatically connecting one of said oriices with said suction pipe, and means responsive to the downward displacement of said transfer members and adapted to actuate said weft bunch removing device.

2. A bobbin transfer assembly according to claim 1,

6 wherein said suction means include a vacuum pump, an injector on said pump and an adjustable control valve interposed between said pump and said injector, said control valve synchronizing the air volume from said pump to said injector at the commencement of a bobbin change.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,845,957 8/ 1958 Banks et al. 139-247 2,872,948 2/ 1959 Newbegin et al 139-247 2,954,058 9/ 1960 Gugini et al. 139-247 2,956,593 10/ 1960 Baumann 139-257 3,010,488 11/1961 Banks 139-257 3,067,778 12/1962 Merki 139-257 3,101,099 8/1963 Payne 139-247 3,108,619 10/1963 Kohler 139-257 FOREIGN PATENTS 243,004 4/ 1960 Australia. 1,337,693 8/ 1963 France.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner. I. KEE CHI, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A WEFT REPLENISHING LOOM OF THE TYPE HAVING A SHUTTLE, A STATIONARY BOBBIN MAGAZINE AND SAID MAGAZINE ENCLOSING A PLURALITY OF COMPARTMENTS WHICH CONTAIN A SERIES OF BOBBINS, THE SEPARATE BOBBINS OF SAID SERIES BEING DISTINGUISHED FROM ONE ANOTHER BY COLOR AND BY MATERIAL, EACH SERIES BEING DISPOSED ADJACENT ONE ANOTHER IN SAID MAGAZINE, THE IMPROVEMENT CONSISTING OF A BOBBIN TRANSFER ASSEMBLY HAVING A NUMBER OF TRANSFER MEMBERS CORRESPONDING TO THE NUMBER OF SAID MAGAZINE COMPARTMENTS, EACH OF SAID BOBBIN TRANSFER MEMBERS BEING DISPLACED DOWNWARDLY AND SIDEWARDLY TO A TRANSFER POSITION ABOVE THE SHUTTLE WHICH IS THE SAME POSITION FOR ALL OF SAID TRANSFER MEMBERS, A WEFT BUNCH REMOVING DEVICE ARRANGED ON EACH OF SAID BOBBIN TRANSFER MEMBERS, A CONDUIT IN EACH OF SAID TRANSFER MEMBERS, SUCTION MEANS, AN ORIFICE AT THE END OF EACH SAID CONDUIT, A SUCTION PIPE ON SAID SUCTION MEANS, MEANS FOR REGISTERING AND PNEUMATICALLY CONNECTING ONE OF SAID ORIFICES WITH SAID SUCTION PIPE, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE DOWNWARD DISPLACEMENT OF SAID TRANSFER MEMBERS AND ADAPTED TO ACTUATE SAID WEFT BUNCH REMOVING DEVICE. 